Heru Cipher
The Heru Cipher is an ancient prophecy concerning the location of the thirteen remaining shards before the Second Coming. It was rumored to have been written shortly after the First Doomsday Artifact had been tested. It details what happened in the last testing of the first doomsday artifact, a lesson for future generations on how the assembled Doomsday Device was assembled wrong, and the relative location of the thirteen shards. Who Created it Heru Vek was a scientist, who, upon witnessing the widespread destruction that ravaged both sides, was driven instantly insane. The trauma she had witnessed unlocked dormant prophetic abilities. Deep in a trance, she wrote down a message of warning, of lessons learned, and of hope to the future generations. The world would one day come to a fork in the road, and may the next chosen choose more wisely. She also predicted that the device would be activated again. The 3 Versions Heru was torn between the aftermath, her sense of duty and forbidden love. She created three versions of the prophecy but no one is 100% sure which version is accurate. The first version was given to the crown that had been lost, her bloodline. The second version had been given to her forbidden love, who was a Westgaard. The third version is the version that ultimately lands up in Trefoil Academy of Magery and Sorcery's hands. The History of the Third Version The third version was ferreted away by a dark oracle, named Osiris. Relentlessly pursued by the dark guardians, Osiris was eventually killed by them. Unknown to the guardians, Osiris had managed to hide and entrust the stolen Heru cipher with his prodigy, Shesmu. Shesmu was a contradictory Ancient Egyptian figure to say the least. On one hand, he was known to be a deity of celebration. On the other hand, Shesmu was also known as the “lord of blood”, “great slaughterer of the gods”, and “he who dismembers bodies to extract the truth”. Unbeknownst his followers, Shesmu was also a blood mage in hiding, who was expertly skilled in mind based enchantments. Luner Badru, an ancient Egyptian craftsman who lived over several thousand years ago, was a master jeweler. He himself was not a mage. He was, however, a devout follower of the Cult of Shesmu. One night, Badru fell asleep in a Shesmu temple that was located at the Fayum (about 62 miles from Cairo). An idea came to him in a dream. (It was not uncommon for Shesmu to use such tactics when he did not feel like paying for a commissioned item from non-mages.) The idea that Luner Badru had from Shesmu was an amulet. This amulet is now known as The Luner’s Amulet of Blood Absorption. The amulet has three main purposes: # the ability to forcibly extract information from the minds of unwilling subjects # to forcibly soften a person’s will and brainwash them to do tasks they normally would not do # to conceal the Heru Cipher within and it would only appear if inkfox blood was used to reveal it. Trefoil Academy managed to retrieve the amulet from the Westgaards. After extracting the Heru Cipher from it, they voted to use the Shadow Claw, a gift from the Blood Heralds, to destroy the Amulet after extracting the Heru Cipher. The Text in the Academy Version of the Cipher What puts one’s hand to, that shall be done. What is left undone, that shall be done. The whole cannot be changed. we have already lost that chance. Pandemonium, wailing, and stench of carnage fills the air. With the Wave, the power to tell the dark future, hope darkens, despair rules. Wave reaches the pinnacle, and none save one can. The eyes are shrouded. no means to fight an omnipresent force, The shadowless ones just grieve. why must it be a Wave? Divide, if it would just...then retaliate, we may. There is no place to run. no escape. Those who are mourned will never return. Because the time left to us was short, we were mistaken in our path. But now do we realize, we should change not the whole, but the parts. Shunning the field broken by blood, the shadowed girl whispers, "surely, i will return." Stolen not once, not twice, but thrice from unsuspecting hands by unsuspecting hands before reclaimed. Now, they rest, waiting for their true purpose. Waiting, until they finally are claimed by those whose eyes no longer be shrouded. All will freeze by the biting chills of my consuming wrath. All will be burnt by the fires of my smothering love. All will be lost until they are grounded in the roots of my past. All will be blinded by the light of my terrible beauty. All will tremble under the towering weight of my rock-hard will. All will be flayed alive by the sparks of my sadistic creativity. All will be denied their rest by my long dead knowledge. All will be flung back by the sheer force of my sweeping decision. All will drown within by the tidal force of my suffocating commitment. All will be consumed by a passion of my own design. All will be plunged into darkness until they recognize my blinding light. All will be doomed to repeat over and over my history. All will be stuck in time until i have consumed them all. Perhaps then the Wave is just a beginning. And with the turbulent destruction after the wave, only a void remains. From deep within the void arrives the truth. Version 1